“I just can’t wait to get on the road again.”

In my head, I was glad to get moving again.

In my heart…. well I didn’t feel like “being where my chacos were” like I said in the last post. Be Where my Chacos Are

I had a huge cry – Well maybe 2 cries.

One was as we left Denver with the reality that our trip wasn’t in the RV.

• The little home that I had made
• My little kitchen that I had stocked
• The amazing comfy bed that we pulled along
• The big globe lights that we bought to be strung while we sat underneath the awning overlooking the mountains and streams we would sit beside
• My dreams were all sittin’ in Denver at some mechanic shop.

The second time I burst into tears was when I realized that the maps and National Park packs that I had spent hours making were still in the RV. 😩 I am sure most of you would not have made this a big cry but I sure did.

I realized at some point of my crying that it was good I had acknowledged my sadness and now it was time to get through it and over it or I would miss all the fun the rest of the people in our newly rented van were having.

We made the decision Friday afternoon to move ahead with a different plan since we got word that the RV didn’t have any movement on when it could get looked at and when it could get “back on the road again.”

It was quite hectic as we drove across town to the airport for a rented Ford Transit in Friday Denver traffic. Then I took the kids back to use their all day passes at a climbing wall place while Blake raced to the RV to unload and re load what we needed into “Big T” (the Transit van) all before the mechanic shop closed.

However, he didn’t make it on time so the gate was locked! They had closed their shop early and he could see the RV on the other side!

But Blake’s brain doesn’t work like mine SO he found a way to jump the fence, unload all of our stuff, throw it over the fence, and load it into “Big T”.

Then repeat.

Then repeat again.

All the while, NOT getting the police called on him.

He knew that if he didn’t do it on that Friday afternoon then we would have to wait until Monday before we could get on the road again.

So now let me proceed to our adventure that included some tears like I said and OH a little tension between Blake and I over the bikes that HE WAS SURE WE NEEDED TO INCLUDE ON OUR JOURNEY.

It took a bit but I got over the bike situation. I mean seeing the faces on the kids as they saw mountain after mountain was pure joy and helped me move ahead.

We made our way to Glenwood Springs – the crowds were busting at the seams so we decided to move on for some less crowded camping.

It was dark as we made our way up into the steep inclines of Colorado National Monument. It is a National Park and since we couldn’t see we weren’t quite sure what we were getting ourselves into. We did know that the temperatures on Big T said that it was 94 degrees but we had hopes for cooler weather as the night went on.

When we arrived we saw a sign for a stargazing program at 9pm. Blake set up camp with Alexandra and Caleb while I took the others on a night hike to the Ranger Station.

The stars were amazing and the moon was almost completely full. It was beyond me to see such beauty – and that was only the night sky.

We awoke to this:

We were all amazed- the bathrooms were nice and there was plenty of water pumps which is always helpful in the desert like climate. It cost us a whole $22 even though some of the kids still think our night of camping cost us $2,200 plus as you can see below we were over our quota of 7 people.

We are sure glad to be back on the road again. ❤️